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“None of my violin teachers
to see 70. To be a musician means one
is compulsive. You’re always trying to
do better. It’s never good enough,” she
says. “It’s a difficult lifestyle. There is
no financial security. The schedule can
be rough on a relationship. It’s
wonder all of my girlfriends have been
musicians.”
Compulsiveness is the successful
musician’s curse and blessi ng. The trait
may wreak havoc on one’s relation
ship and soul, but it may lead to critical
acclaim. So it is with Huggett. Her
unyielding fervor for baroque music
and her desire to “do better” have made
her one of the world’s premiere solo
ists, directors and chamber musicians.
As a young person, Huggett stud
ied m odern violin with Manoug
Parikian at the Royal Academy of
Music. In her late teens she was intro
duced to the baroque violin, which she
immediately fell in love with. Huggett
went on to study the old techniques and
styles from original sources, but also
gained much insight from studying with Dutch and Flemish
musicians such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt
and Ton Koopman, with whom she founded the Amsterdam
Baroque Orchestra in 1979. Huggett was that orchestra’s
leader until 1987.
Today Huggett tours the world performing her craft. As
founder of Trio Sonnerie, she has championed the works of
the French baroque masters, recording Couperin’s Concerts
Royeaux, Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concerts, as well
as Corelli’s Violin Sonatas, op. 5, and the Telemann Paris
Quartets. She has appeared as director and soloist with the
prestigious Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The
Hanover Band, and the Academy of Ancient Music. Her
recordings of Vivaldi and Mozart concertos have been very
popular, as has her first recording of the Beethoven and
Mendelssohn concertos, with period instruments.
In addition to her performing and recording schedule,
she is professor of baroque violin at the Akademie filr Alte
Musik of Bremen, Germany. And as if that weren’t enough,
last fall Huggett was appointed to a $27,000-a-year job as the
Portland Baroque Orchestra’s artistic director. Though that
job officially starts in July, Huggett has been scheduled for
two PBO concerts this season, including appearances April
22 and 23 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, where
she will both lead the orchestra and take the spotlight as
violin soloist during an all-Bach program.
PBO enthusiasts hope Huggett’s prestige will eventually
lead to national tours and recording contracts for the orches
tra. Though PBO has a solid reputation within international
baroque music circles, it lacks broad-based recognition.
Until now, PBO has been run as a small cooperative, and it
hasn’t recorded or toured very much.
Hugget says this new position creates new challenges for
her. “As a performer, you really focus on the music, but as
artistic director you’ve got to be concerned with things like
the budget, working with the board, and talking with the
right people,” she says.
Mastering the art of schmoozing. “Yes. Schmoozing.
I’ve never really done that before, but I’m starting to learn,”
she laughs.
“It’s fascinating learning a new culture. In England,
people seem more repressed. Even if they don’t like some
thing, they kind of keep it quiet. People here can be very
outspoken and opinionated,” says Huggett, who will live
most of the time in London but will spend about three
months each year in the United States.
“I was at a dinner party recently and I was just shocked
at how some people were talking about taxation,” she
continues. “In Europe, people accept taxes as a part of
everyday life, but here in America quite a lot of important
people seem to oppose it and think their money can be spent
better— and they say so loud and clear. I sometimes find it
shocking, but I just kind of sit back and listen and learn.”
Huggett comes to work in this country during a turbulent
time for artists. Federal funding for the arts is under a sharp
ax wielded by a less-than-sympathetic Congress. Yet de
spite the threat, Huggett says she sees this situation as an
opportunity.
“A lot of the same thing is going on in Europe. The
money just isn’t there,” she says. “What I hope is that this
will mobilize the passions of arts organizations that have
become rather complacent because they always thought
Monica Huggett in rehearsal with the Portland Baroque Orchestra
*
“When I first came out it was
considered very radical. There were
no other well-known women who were
out hack then. Now there are so many
young women who are out and I would
like to think that my honesty has some
how made it possible for them to
openly be who they are.
—Monica Huggett
”
they were going to have government
funding. Now they’ll have to fight,
and that may ignite their feelings.”
Huggett suggests that it may in
fact be this type of unstable environ
ment that gives PBO its distinctive
flair. A few years back PBO was
saddled with a $55,000 deficit.
Though the orchestra’s budget is back
in the black, memories of that painful
experience linger and have undoubt
edly informed the board’s financial
inclinations (read: budgetary tight-
fistedness).
“There is a definite difference
between [PBO] and other orchestras
I’ve worked with, and I think that
does have to do with the reality that
they have had to fight to get by. This
is a very lively and creative bunch of
musicians,” she says. “There’s an
obvious enthusiasm among these
musicians that you don’t see with
Europeans or the slick people in
places like New York or Los Ange
les. In those places it’s not cool to
look like you’re having fun. Here it’s okay. 1 enjoy that.”
Huggett says she also likes the fact that there seems to be a
hunger for culture in the Pacific Northwest. “I first visited the
region in 1983 when it was a very different place. The area was
dealing with a recession. It didn’t have the buzz that it does
now,” she says. “People seem to be moving here from bigger
cities because it’s such a livable environment. I think a lot of
these people bring with them their desire for art and music....
It’s a very exciting time (for the Pacific Northwest) right now.”
Yet with all of the benefits, there come some drawbacks.
“Yes. I’ve heard about (the Oregon Citizens Alliance],” says
Huggett, who came out as a lesbian in her late 20s. "One of the
traits often found among musicians is our desire to be loved.
When we perform we want people’s applause. We want them to
love us. We want their acceptance, so it does make me a bit
uncomfortable to know there are people out there— people who
don’t know me— who think I’m disgusting and perverted be
cause I’m a lesbian.”
She adds: "1 suppose to a certain extent I’ve managed to turn
a blind eye to the discrimination 1 may have faced because I’m
a woman and a lesbian. I just don’t think it’s healthy to always
be saying that I didn’t get this or I didn’t get that because I’m a
lesbian and a woman.”
Despite that claim, Huggett readily admits she would not
have been given an opportunity to lead a prominent baroque
orchestra in England. "My first struggle has always been as a
woman. You always have to be so much better than the men in
order to have a shot at the same opportunity. It’s not easy. You
always have to prove yourself.”
As for being a lesbian, she says: “It’s a good thing I am,
because I’d make a lousy wife.” In a more serious light, Huggett
says she’s proud she may be a role model for young lesbians.
“When I first came out it was considered very radical. There
were no other well-known women who were out back then,” she
says. “Now there are so many young women who are out and I
would like to think that my honesty has somehow made it
possible for them to openly be who they are.”
Huggett says she is currently in a "wonderful, wonderful”
relationship, with a 28-year-old European musician. (She says
her first girlfriend was from the United States and espoused a
“pretty radical view of feminism.”)
“My girlfriend and I get along splendidly. She’s a musician,
and her father was an actor and her mother was an actress, so
she’s used to the kind of crazy schedule I have,” she says.
The two recently spent some downtime together doing a
little sightseeing on the West Coast. “I love traveling. It’s kind
of funny because I do so much of it for work, but it’s different
when you’re traveling on holiday. We hope to visit India soon,”
says Huggett, whose list of hobbies include gardening and
restoring old buildings. “Oh yes, and I recently got a computer.”
Now what would Bach think about that?
Portland Baroque Orchestra’s 1994-95 season will con
clude with a program o f music by the baroque period’s cel
ebrated composer Johann Sebastian Bach, in concerts April 22
at 8 pm and April 23 at 3 pm at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 147
NW 19th Ave. in Portland. Headlining the program is Hugget,
who will lead the orchestra and solo on the violin. Tickets,
priced at $16 and $20 ($11 fo r seniors and stiulents), may be
purchased at Classical Millennium, 3144 E Burnside St. in
Portland, or by calling the PBO box office at 222-6000.